Life After Death
by AdInfinitum1830
Summary: Some things will never change, some are irreversible. How their lives go on, drabbles about all the characters' lives after the war. Katniss/Peeta & the other characters. Set after MJ.
1. Please?

_**Please?**_

_**Disclaimer: **_**The Hunger Games _and it's characters belong to Suzanne Collins_**

**_Please Review! :)_**

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><p>Peeta and I have made our little home in whatever was left of District 12. Of course, all the charred buildings and rubble have been washed away with bulldozers and replaced with shiny new buildings.<p>

Sometimes Annie comes to visit, with her and Finnick's boy. He's still a baby, a chubby little bundle that never fails to make Peeta light up. When he glows, it's like a firefly in the night - a speck of light in a sea of black. I can see the longing behind Peeta's eyes, the sadness that he knows this is the one thing I'll never give him. He's like magic with that child, his arms cease all crying, his voice calming.

Peeta has always been good with people. I have never been good at anything more than survival, and barely so.

All of a sudden he is standing in front of me, cradling Annie and Finnick's boy, his lips searching for mine. He pushes my hair away from my face and looks at me intently. His gesture voices what he dares not question in words, _Please?_


	2. Reserved for the Ocean

_**Reserved for the Ocean**_

_**Disclaimer: **_**The Hunger Games _and it's characters belong to Suzanne Collins_**

**_Please Review! :)_**

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><p>Annie Cresta falls asleep at night in her and Finnick's bed. Their baby sleeps peacefully in his cradle, the only symbol of peace in Annie's life.<p>

She touches the spot on the bed she leaves for him. She still lives as if he's alive, maybe so she can keep herself alive. She's not really sure herself. The sheets on his side are only up halfway where his body would be - just the way he likes it. Two pillows stacked on top of each other for his head, his trident tucked under his side of the bed where he always kept it. She places her own hand on top of an empty spot on the bed, where Finnick's hand would always rest.

Annie Cresta dreams of curling waves slapping white sanded shores. She dreams of a clear blue-green sea, of Finnick's own seafoam green eyes. She dreams of their footprints in the sand, marking the earth temporarily, only to be erased when the wind's whispers become shouts. She dreams of the way her favorite white dress would kiss the surface of the water when she waded in it on her first date with Finnick.

The war is technically over, but she knows that once a war is started, it never really ends.

Under dawn's smiling light, Annie sets up breakfast. She feeds her son, sets her place at the table, and put some bacon on Finnick's plate. He sits in the chair by the window, soaking up the sun.

Annie doesn't cry anymore. Tears are a waste of salt water, she always said. It's reserved for the ocean.


	3. Kids

**Kids**

**_Disclaimer: _The Hunger Games_ and character all belong to Suzanne Collins._**

**_Please Review!_**

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><p>Haymitch's five-o'clock shadow is rough against his hand as he rubs his chin. There's an incessant banging on his door. At first he tries to ignore it, but it <em>just won't stop.<em> Angrily, he throws down the bottle of white liquor he's holding and stalks over to the door.

When he snaps the door open, Peeta's standing in its place. The baking boy looks disheveled and ruffled up. His light blonde hair dances in different directions on his head, his shirt wrinkled from restlessness. Haymitch scoffs; the boy's not even wearing matching shoes.

"Is that you're I-just-rolled-out-of-bed look? Is that what Katniss is into these days?" Haymitch slurs, reluctantly letting Peeta pass him and enter the house. It's true, he always liked the girl better. Katniss was like him enough to make him want to keep her alive in the Games. Peeta was - and still is - too much that foolish boy infatuated with a girl he would literally die for. Haymitch has no patience for self-sacrifice. There's only enough room to _stay alive_.

The blonde boy rolls his eyes and sighs. "I couldn't sleep last night," he admits. "I've been thinking."

Haymitch scowls. "Don't hurt yourself."

A determined look glazes over Peeta's eyes - the one he gets whenever he's come up with an overwhelming idea. Haymitch remembers the first time he saw that look, during first interview coaching when Peeta decided he would proclaim his unrequited love for his fellow tribute. "I'm going to propose to her."

The corner of Haymitch's lip quirks up. An amused look consumes his expression. In the background, the news is talking about how Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are heros of war. "Well, that's a ballsy move."

Peeta looks offended. "You think I can't do it?" He frowns. Suddenly, he feels everything come crashing down like the rubble of District 12 during the Capitol bombing. The times he stood in front of the oval mirror and took a deep breath, telling himself that Katniss was his - not Gale's - now. The times Katniss kissed him, and he told himself it was real. "You think she won't say yes?"

Was it all _not_ real?

Haymitch guffaws. "I think she'll say yes, alright. I just think it's funny you want to throw all this on her after all she's been through."

A very annoyed Peeta stomps out, slamming the door behind him.

"Kids," Haymitch mutters. "They never understand they're going to lose everyone they love anyway."


	4. Polished

**Polished**

**_Disclaimer: _The Hunger Games_ and character all belong to Suzanne Collins._**

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><p>He brings his hands up to his neck, straightens the collar of his crisp white shirt. He watches his own meticulous fingers in the mirror tying the black bow tie as if they're not his own.<p>

The man in the glass is striking. His Seam skin is dark and smooth, his deep brown hair slicked back with gel. Tall, muscular, and lean, he looks roughed up, but put together. It's as if he's scrubbed away all the guilt on his skin, all the ashes that lingered from the war. It feels _wrong_ to look so polished and clean, so shiny and pretty.

He almost feels like a tool.

Another year, another gala remembering the war. In the newly refurbished Capitol, all contributors of the war are invited to attend. Gale always goes, dressing up every year. But she never does.

He looks at his own fingers in the mirror. They're long, great for weaving traps.

He misses hunting. He misses running through the forest like it's his second home. He misses the way he and Katniss used to be - no Peeta, no Games, no rebels. He misses selling game at the Hob, the feeling of just being another poor kid with a grudge against the Capitol.

Every time he thinks about the war, he wonders what would have happened if Katniss wasn't in the Games. If she didn't fall in love with Peeta, if she didn't pull out those berries to save their skins only to end up igniting a nation on fire.

If Katniss was never in the Games, she could have been his. There would have been no war. There would have been no boy with the bread to take her away from him. Mentally, he scolds himself. It's so hard to hate someone so good. Even after the hijacking, Peeta's much more of a golden boy than he is.

He gathers himself, and his thoughts, and heads out of his swanky apartment in District Two. He's about to set off for the Capitol when the phone rings.

His phone rings a lot, but Gale almost never picks up. It's usually about work, and he figures people can wait a couple of hours until he clocks in to talk to him. But everyone he works with is probably on their way to the gala, so whatever it is must be important.

Reluctantly, he takes the phone off the cradle and pressed the button. He listens for a moment, then says: "Katniss?"


	5. Sequins

_**Sequins**_

_**Disclaimer: **_**The Hunger Games _and it's characters belong to Suzanne Collins_**

**_I'd love some reviews!:)_**

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><p><em>Before the 75th Hunger Games<em>

Cinna isn't happy. It isn't right to promise a young girl happiness and the rest of her life, only to have them ripped away from her. Only to make her wear her own wedding dress to slaughter.

It isn't fair for her to be the symbol of rebellion. She didn't know what she was doing when she pulled out those berries. She only knew that she didn't want to live without him. She knew that she couldn't live with herself if he died.

Cinna's nimble hands alter Katniss' wedding dress stitch by stitch, feather by feather. His work is his outlet - the only way he can process anything. They only way he can spit in the face of a Capitol that has ruined this girl's life.

He knows what will happen to him when the dress sets on fire. He knows what will happen when the audience is stunned, and the cameras start turning off once they realize what is going on. He knows nothing will happen to him right away. He knows he'll have to wait for it. He knows that every minute could be his last before an agonizing, unforgiving death.

But it's worth it.

Peeta had once said: _She doesn't know the effect she can have. _But Cinna does._  
><em>

He knew from the moment he saw them at the 74th reaping that they were something special.

Katniss, the girl who ran to take her sister's place before the twelve-year-old was able to set foot on the podium. Peeta, the boy who's handshake was full of assurance. There was something different about them than the other tributes from 12 - the determination to stay alive.

When the dress is finished, he smiles to himself. Cinna was always good at picking out the sequins from the most mundane array of glitter.


	6. Sunshine

_**Sunshine**_

_**Disclaimer: **_**The Hunger Games _and it's characters belong to Suzanne Collins_**

**_Reviews? :)_**

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><p>Delly Cartwright places her freshly picked tulips in a clear glass vase. She fills the vase's belly up halfway with water, then places it at the center of the table.<p>

The war is over, but she went back to 12. She wasn't sure where she'd go when it was all over. At first she went to the Capitol, watching the doctors help Peeta get better. At least he had someone by his side when Katniss couldn't be there. She thought he would need her smiles, her assurances that he wasn't the monster Snow tried to turn him into.

One could argue that the survivors of the war came out more crippled than the dead. Maybe it's because for the dead it's all over now. For the living...well, there's still the rest of life to finish. Some could argue that they're just too tired.

But not Delly.

Delly, whose optimistic face brightened Peeta's days of staying in white Capitol hospital room until he was cleared to go back to 12. Back to Katniss.

Delly, who was on the same flight home with Peeta when he came back to the Everdeen girl. Who sometimes visits Annie to help her deal with Finnick's absence - although it seems as though Annie lives as if Finnick still does.

But Delly doesn't judge. She's seen much worse evils.

Underneath all that sunshine, one thing really gets her: She's all alone.

Katniss has got Peeta, Gale has got a new girl in the 2, Annie's got her son. Delly is just a free spirit, roaming around in other people's lives. Sometimes she worries, what will happen when no one needs her anymore?


	7. Anymore

**Anymore**

**Disclaimer: The Hunger Games and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. No copyright infringement intended. **

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><p>"I wish you would come home," Katniss tells Gale over the phone.<p>

Gale's voice is rough, as if he's just swallowed a bullet. "Why?" He's not mad at her, but he doesn't feel like talking to her after she chose Peeta. He certainly doesn't want to hear about how happy they are together, and how she made the choice, and oh, how she still wants them to be friends.

"Hunting isn't the same anymore," she allows. In truth, guilt is swallowing her whole. How could she possibly ask for him back after she got engaged to Peeta? She knows she's being selfish, but she's allowed to be selfish after all she's been through. Right?

Gale laughs dryly. "You don't need to hunt anymore," he says, but he misses it too. He understands why Katniss still does it, why she still holds on to what little remnants of her old life are left behind.

"I know," Katniss says in a small voice, as if suddenly she's afraid to speak anymore.

"What's wrong, Catnip?" Gale wonders, trying to make his voice warmer. Sure, he doesn't feel like talking to her, but he doesn't want to ward off the only girl he's ever loved.

"Peeta asked me-" she begins, but Gale interrupts.

"And you said yes," he says a little tiredly. He changed his mind. Maybe he _does_ want to ward her off after all.

Silence on the other line. Then: "Come home."

Gale rubs his forehead. In a quiet voice, so low it's almost unintelligible, he says, "I don't know where that is anymore."

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><p><em><strong>Please review and check out my other works!<strong>_


	8. Mad World

**_Mad World_**

**_Disclaimer: The Hunger Games & its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. No copyright infringement intended_**

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><p>Sometimes Finnick wishes he could be with Annie, or that Annie could be with him. Sometimes he just wishes that he could talk to her.<p>

It's excruciating, watching her live as if he were still with her - watching her set his place at the dinner table and put food on his plate. It reduces him to agonizing tears every time she checks to make sure his trident is still tucked under the bed in the exact same place he always kept it.

He's not there to protect her anymore, and it kills him. She needs him, and it's not fair.

It's not fair that she has to raise a son all on her own. It's not fair that she has to face this mad world all by herself.

A world madder than herself.

Finnick brushes the hair out of his eyes. He still doesn't know where he is.

Heaven? Hell? Purgatory? He hasn't quite figured it out. Surely, hell had to be earth. All that destruction and pain? All he knows is that it feels like hell here without Annie.

He wants to tell her that she's stronger than this mad world - that she should let go of him until they meet again. He wants to tell her that he's always watching over her, but that she has the strength to go on without him.

He wants to tell her all these things, but he just can't.

When he cries, his tears feed the salt water of District 4, where he watches his beautiful girl wade in the water. They were never meant to be apart. Even if it's just for a little while.

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><p><strong>I miss Finnick so much! Had to write something for him :) <strong>

**I have a couple of drabbles already planned, but I'm wonder who/what _you_ want to see!_ Let me know_ and review! :)**


	9. Hijacked

**Hijacked**

**Disclaimer: The Hunger Games and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins**

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><p>He always knew she was something special.<p>

But now he just doesn't know_ what_.

There's things in his head - things that are shiny and glistening. When he asks people about them, they tell him they're not real. But in truth, what_ is _real anymore, anyway?

He doesn't know how he feels about her. There's something inside of him, something that's blocked off to the rest of his system. He knows it's important, but he can't reach it. He tries to uncover whatever's buried so deep, but the Capitol made sure that they were only returning damaged goods.

So_ what_ does he feel? He doesn't even know.

There's people here, telling him that things are different now. They're telling him the war's over. They're telling him he loved Katniss Everdeen.

They're telling him he still does.

But how could they possibly know that?

From what he's seen, she's not as angelic as they pitch her to be. They sugar-coat her, make her seem sweet like the pastries he used to bake in District 12.

He realizes she might now be a mutt. But he doesn't know if he still loves her.

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><p><strong>Sorry for the long space between updates! Things are kind of busy lately. Thanks for all the input:) Love hearing what characters people want to see. <strong>

**Reviews?**


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